Steve Belichick goes to work every day in his father’s footsteps. For once, that cliché is not an exaggeration.
UNC’s new defensive coordinator is the son of the head coach, Bill Belichick, and yet another member of what has become a football coaching dynasty. Bill, too, was the son of a coach: the elder Steve Belichick had brief stops at Vanderbilt and UNC before serving on staff at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis for 33 years. Bill Belichick grew up around the game, and never thought of making a career out of anything else.
“I learned a lot from being around my dad,” he said Wednesday. “A lot of it was just from osmosis. It’s not instruction. You just live it.”
Bill’s sons, Steve and Brian, grew up in the same way: following their dad around the New England Patriots facilities in Foxboro, soaking up every bit of football knowledge they were able to glean.
“He’s definitely my mentor, my idol,” Steve Belichick said of his father. “I look up to him in more ways than just football. I’m always trying to take something from him. I’m always trying to be a sponge and absorb as much as I can from him.”
The brothers’ football lives didn’t come without at least some resistance at home. Their mother, Debby Clarke Belichick, wanted to leave the possibility open of her sons doing something other than coaching.
“My mom always told me I could do something better with my life,” Steve joked. “I appreciated my mom for saying that. And at this point, I understand a little bit what she’s saying.”
Undeterred, the two brothers began as the Patriots’ ball boys, but soon graduated to more important tasks, whether it was breaking down film or running errands for any of the team’s dozens of staff members. Eventually, the two were official Patriots employees. Steve sat in on captains’ meetings. Brian met with quarterbacks (yes, including that one). By 2020, both were position coaches: Steve coached linebackers and Brian handled the safeties.
Steve Belichick held multiple positions within the New England Patriots’ coaching staff, finishing his time in Foxboro as the outside linebacker coach. (Image via Associated Press/Charles Krupa)
Bill Belichick was relieved of his coaching duties in New England following the 2023 season. Steve and Brian, for the first time in their professional lives, would have a boss who didn’t share their last name. Steve left Foxboro to become defensive coordinator at the University of Washington, while Brian stayed with the Patriots.
“It was a tough year,” Steve admitted, “Not being with [Brian]. Not being with my dad.”
As challenging as the year may have been personally, it didn’t seem to affect Steve’s performance as a coach. Joining a program which – despite having reached the national championship game – gave up more than 400 total yards per game the season prior, Belichick molded the Huskies defense into a unit which ranked No. 26 in the country in 2024. Washington’s total yards allowed per game dropped to 331. (For comparison, UNC’s defense ranked 85th in the country and allowed 396 total yards per game in 2024.) The Huskies were far from the powerhouse they had been in 2023, finishing the season 6-7, but it wasn’t because of the defense.
Though Bill Belichick was no longer Steve’s boss, he still was a presence in his son’s life: Bill could often be seen observing Washington practices, perhaps to support Steve or perhaps to “persuade” the Huskies into following his son’s commands. Once UNC fired Mack Brown and Bill took the job in December, it didn’t take long for Steve to follow his dad to Chapel Hill. The news of his hiring broke only 11 days after Bill joined the Tar Heels.
“I take all the credit for him being in college,” Steve said with a grin. “That’s all me.”
It’s easy to see Steve as merely a clone of his father (their voices are eerily similar), but he insists that’s not the case. In fact, one could make the argument some of Steve’s best work as a coach came during the one season he didn’t work for Bill. When asked if there was any possibility he could have spurned his father’s offer and stayed in Seattle, he responded, “There was definitely a chance.”
“I’m my own person,” he said. “I’m gonna do my own thing. I’ve got a family to feed. I’ve got people to provide for. I don’t count on [Bill] to do that. I’m gonna do that myself. I’m a man.”
Brian Belichick has also joined the Tar Heels, leaving the Patriots – the only football employer he’s ever known – to coach defensive backs in Chapel Hill.
“We see a lot of stuff the same,” Steve said of his brother. “Grew up the same way with the same structure and development… it’s great to work with a person like that.”
If past results from Foxboro are any indication, the reunification of Clan Belichick with the Tar Heels is reason for optimism. When all three were coaching in New England, the Patriots won two Super Bowls and routinely ranked among the NFL’s best defenses. The 2019 unit, which featured Steve as defensive backs coach and Brian as a coaching assistant, led the league in both yards and points allowed per game. In 2023, the final season with all three Belichicks on staff, the Patriots ranked No. 6 in total defense and No. 3 in opponent yards per play.
Now, in just his second year coaching college football, Steve Belichick is ready to push the envelope to make sure the Tar Heels reach the same heights.
“I’m not a cookie-cutter guy. I’m not gonna live inside a fence,” he said. “I want to test the boundaries and see how far we can take it.”
Featured image via Associated Press/Rick Scuteri
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